Chapter 8 - The Price of Honesty|
Hannah’s breath caught in her throat. She looked from the small box on the desk back to Ethan’s face, suddenly recognizing the intense, buried grief behind his guarded expression.
"Your... your daughter?" Hannah whispered. "Oh, God. Mr. Whitmore, I didn't know—"
"She passed away four years ago," Ethan said, his voice flat, stripped of all emotion as if he had rehearsed those words a thousand times to keep them from destroying him. "Her name was Lily. She was four years old. That music box was the last gift I gave her before she went into the hospital."
The air in the luxurious office suddenly felt incredibly heavy. Hannah felt a lump form in her throat, her grip tightening instinctively around Ellie. As a mother, the mere thought of losing her child made her knees feel weak.
"I am so sorry," Hannah murmured softly, tears glittering in her eyes. "If I had known... I would have been so much more careful. I broke something you can never replace."
"No," Ethan said, looking down at his desk. "You didn't break it. It was already broken. It had been sitting in the dark for four years because I was too much of a coward to look at it."
He looked back up at Hannah, his gray eyes piercingly intense.
"I called my HR department this morning, Miss Mercer," Ethan continued. "I reviewed your file. You haven't missed a single shift in eight months, except for two emergency family absences. You work forty hours a week here, and I saw that you take night shifts at a commercial laundry downtown on weekends."
Hannah lowered her head, feeling exposed. "I do what I have to do to take care of Ellie."
"You are not fired," Ethan declared firmly. "And neither is Marlene Price."
Hannah looked up, stunned. "I'm... I'm not?"
"On one condition," Ethan added, picking up the small rosewood box and sliding it into a leather carrying case. "There is an old horologist in the Historic District—a man who specializes in restoring antique music boxes. He agreed to meet me at his shop this afternoon. I want you to come with me."
May you like
Hannah blinked, utterly confused. "You want me to go with you?"
"You offered to take responsibility for its repair," Ethan said, a subtle, almost invisible flicker of a smile touching his lips for the briefest instant. "I am accepting your offer. We leave in ten minutes."
